The cost of college is a major challenge for students interested in pursuing a degree. For students behind bars, affordability can be an obstacle that’s essentially impossible to overcome.

New research suggests that making it easier for people in federal and state prisons to pay for college would not only benefit the inmates themselves, but could provide also a broader economic boon.

If lawmakers were to lift the ban on prisoners accessing Pell grants — the money the federal government provides to low-income students to pay for college — the wages of all formerly incarcerated people would go up by $43.5 million during the first year of release, according to a report released Wednesday by the Vera Institute of Justice, an advocacy organization focused on the criminal justice system, and Georgetown University’s Center on Poverty and Inequality.

The researchers estimate that if 50% of the eligible prisoner population took advantage of the program and took post-secondary classes while behind bars their likelihood of employment after release would on average jump by nearly 10%. The employment rate among all formerly incarcerated workers would also rise 2.1%.

‘Having a post-secondary credential is one way to demonstrate that this person a has the skills and wants a life of economic opportunity.’
—Margaret diZerega, a project director at Vera Institute of Justice

What’s more, making it easier for prisoners to pay for college while incarcerated would actually save states money — to the tune of $365.8 million per year — by cutting down on the likelihood that participants would return to prison.

Given that some college is becoming more necessary than ever to compete in today’s economy, it only makes sense that making it easier for students to take classes behind bars would improve their chances of success once they leave, said Margaret diZerega, a project director at Vera and one of the authors of the study.

“People with conviction histories face a lot of barriers to employment and housing,” diZerega said. “Having a post-secondary credential is one way to demonstrate that this person a has the skills and wants a life of economic opportunity like anyone else.”

The findings come amid increased urgency from both sides of the political aisle to address the consequences of mass incarceration on those who wind up in the criminal justice system and on society more broadly. The research suggests making college more affordable is one tool policymakers could use to mitigate some of these challenges.

Right now, about 64% of inmates in state and federal prison are academically qualified to take college courses, according to the report, but most don’t have access to these programs and even if they do, they likely can’t afford the tuition, diZerega said.In 2014, the latest year for which data is available, just 9% of incarcerated people received a certificate from a higher education institution while in prison.

A provision in the 1994 crime bill banned prisoners from accessing Pell grants. If lawmakers were to lift that ban, 463,000 prisoners could become eligible.

One reason it’s so difficult for people behind bars to take college courses — a provision in the 1994 crime bill banned them from accessing Pell grants. If lawmakers were to lift that ban, 463,000 incarcerated individuals would become eligible for the funds, the study found.

Even if every single one of those students took advantage of the opportunity to use a Pell grant, an extremely unlikely scenario, costs to the financial aid program would only rise about 10%, the report published Wednesday found.

There appears to be some momentum for reversing the ban. The Obama administration launched a pilot program in 2015 to provide access to Pell grants for some prisoners as a way to test the impact of a possible policy change.

Though, at the time, some Republicans criticized the notion of spending federal financial-aid funds on incarcerated individuals, that experiment continues under the Trump administration.

“There’s a much greater understanding of the size and the scope of our mass incarceration problem in this country,” then when lawmakers put ban on providing Pell grants to inmates in place, diZerega said.

Increasing access to higher education for people behind bars is “part of a broader conversation that has bipartisan support to think about how to help people successfully come back to our communities,” she added.

Get a daily roundup of the top reads in personal finance delivered to your inbox. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Personal Finance Daily newsletter. Sign up here.

Jillian
Berman

Jillian Berman covers student debt and millennial finance. You can follow her on Twitter @JillianBerman.

Intraday Data provided by SIX Financial Information and subject to terms of use. Historical and current end-of-day data provided by SIX Financial Information. All quotes are in local exchange time. Real-time last sale data for U.S. stock quotes reflect trades reported through Nasdaq only. Intraday data delayed at least 15 minutes or per exchange requirements.